DIDYMUS Mutasa, the former Zanu PF secretary for administration, has thrust himself as a brave man by daring to do the impossible – challenging the hegemony of party leader President Robert Mugabe.
Mutasa has been hogging the limelight since he caused to be published on Tuesday a lengthy, albeit cheeky letter in which he cast aspersions on Mugabe’s leadership qualities.
In the same letter he exposed Grace, Mugabe’s wife “hate-gospel” ahead of the party’s sixth national people’s congress, a gathering Mutasa considers a nullity and illegal.
His antics have delighted critics of the Zanu PF veteran leader, particularly the comatose opposition which is salivating at a possible split in Mugabe’s party.
Mutasa is seen as having firmly held the proverbial bull by the horns.
However, critics doubt Mutasa’s bravery, claiming that brave politicians sacrifice their comfort zones and take issues like corruption head-on and tackle the collapsed service delivery, HIV and Aids, unemployment and other social and economic ills.
They say Mutasa comes short, pointing out that bravery is not manifested by a partisan fight bent to protect one’s comfort zone and wrestle power from a 91-year-old man.
He is just fighting for his lunch and his fights have nothing to do with issues bedevilling many Zimbabweans.
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Be that as it may, let us give Mutasa the benefit of the doubt. We all have our past, don’t we?
If Mutasa and his grouping commit to democracy and respect for human life and human rights and actually walk the talk there is no reason why well-meaning opposition parties should not work with them.
The opposition to Mugabe is good for the country because he is the biggest liability to State survival. Mutasa’s only sustainable option is to walk away from Zanu PF and work with other opposition parties to fight Mugabe’s dictatorship.
Unfortunately, he and Mujuru allies appear not to have the moral courage to do so given that they have all been beneficiaries of Mugabe’s decades-long patronage network.
They will not want to lose their farms and other ill-gotten possessions, so they will try to fight to regain control of the party. But we do not see them succeeding.
Let’s wait and see what their next steps will be in the coming days, remember a day in politics is too long and again remember politics is the art of the possible. Go Mutasa, go!
